'Mech of the Week: PEN-2* Penthesilea

[Moonsword]

^I do agree. All battles should by default have one Penthesilea per company. Also, it is now to be referred to only as the Penthi, because Penthesilea is not fun to type or spell.

What the heck is hard to type about Penthesilea?  It's not like you're being asked to type an umlaut or something.

[Welshman]

What the heck is hard to type about Penthesilea?  It's not like you're being asked to type an umlaut or something.

Moonsword, we bow to your superior ability to handle long and complicated names. As for this product developer, I've referred to it as the Penny since I first saw the name.

Ken' has this annoying habit of picking long and obscure names. I think he's trying to overcompensate for his short name. I mean look at him, he has to add an extra ' just to get a four letter name!

[Moonsword]

I didn't say it doesn't cause a bit of a mental check on spelling - until you memorize the word (writing an article helps), the spelling of that one is a little odd - but it doesn't seem difficult to type.

EDIT: The one that really caused me trouble this time around was the Chalchiuhtotolin and the only reason I bothered was my own bloody-minded refusal to use the name Chalupa.  I have to watch it one most of the time.  Penthesilea isn't nearly so bad to me.

As far as the one that causes me real trouble?  I have yet to memorize the name Huitzilopochtli and have to look it up every time I need to spell it out.  Fortunately, Huey doesn't trigger the same stubbornness since that name's even more troublesome, so I don't mind not using the full name.

[Kit deSummersville]

Ken' has this annoying habit of picking long and obscure names. I think he's trying to overcompensate for his short name. I mean look at him, he has to add an extra ' just to get a four letter name!

That's a lie! Herb has multiple four letter names for me.

[Moonsword]

That's a lie! Herb has multiple four letter names for me.

How many of them get past the censortron?

[Kit deSummersville]

No one puts Herb in a co...censors Herb!

I, on the other hand, have been censored a number of times. Starting with my first product.

[Moonsword]

Any fun tidbits from the cutting room floor for the Penthesilea or even information you'd care to (and are authorized to) share about which Periphery realms might be able to buy a few of their very own?

[Kit deSummersville]

Heh, the Penny is kinda boring there, no deleted scenes. I wish I'd written 15-20% instead of 20%, though. The last line of the deployment got added to my material and the last word in the write-up was changed from "product" to "armor". MadCap also came up with some good names for the weapons that fit the MoC.

[Maelwys]

I did like seeing that the Magistracy (or one of its local companies) was producing their own brand of Light PPC and ERPPC. Hopefully that means less reliance on imports, unless the factory can't keep up. Hopefully we'll see more Magistracy-brand weapons popping up.

[Dread Moores]

No one puts Herb in a co...censors Herb!

And...once again, thanks to Kit, I'll never look at Patrick Swayze the same again.

[IndyRI]

I didn't say it doesn't cause a bit of a mental check on spelling - until you memorize the word (writing an article helps), the spelling of that one is a little odd - but it doesn't seem difficult to type.

I'm a two-fingered typer. Having to memorize the Penthi's spelling, and type it minues 6 functional typing fingers is troublesome. God, between that and my inability to write cursive, I fit in just fine in the South. How appropriate

[A. Lurker]

The one thing that bugs me about the Penthesilea is, ironically enough, its name. Not because I find it hard to spell or anything, mind; just because the original Penthesilea was this beautiful amazon queen (and a daughter of Ares, IIRC) who basically showed up with her troops, briefly inspired the Trojans with new hope and terrorized the Greeks for an afternoon or so...and then promptly got herself stabbed by Achilles and died.

Not exactly the most cheering precedent, and given that this is a Canopian design of all things I wonder if old Dr. Freud might not have had a field day with that choice of name as well. ;)

[Moonsword]

Yeah, sure, but that sort of thing's going to happen with mythological references if you dig deeply enough.  Here's a few choice selections, including a couple of rather prominent 'Mechs:

The Atlas is named for a fellow who carries the weight of the sky on his shoulders for backing the wrong side in a divine power grab.  Considering that it was built by the dominant side at the time - a side justifiably comparable to the mythological Titans - one could argue that Kerensky was asking for it.  The strength is notable, of course, but so is the might and ferocity of the legendary Amazons.

The various stories around the constellation Cygnus aren't the most inspiring things ever.  The kid who committed suicide stands out pretty nicely and I can't say a murdered bard is particularly cheerful, either.  Achilles had a hand in defeating another guy transformed into a swan.

The Fafnir was named for a guy turned into a dragon for his sheer greed (a greed that inspired him to murder his father) and who ultimately lost his treasure anyway after being the subject of a fratricide.  Greatly inspiring, huh?

The Goliath was named for a well-known figure who lost to a lucky shot with a sling.  No one really remembers him for anything else most of the time.

Imps are small, mischievous demon, so of course they're the perfect thing to name a 100 ton command 'Mech after.

[A. Lurker]

M-hm. And there's another point to consider -- all these units were named, in-universe at least, hundreds, if not a thousand years ahead from real-life "now". All that mythology we've inherited from olden times? That's just the stuff that made it to us despite the ravages of time because of people who thought to preserve it. There must have been a lot of other stories told back then that we'll never know about because they weren't as lucky.

Now project that trend centuries into a frequently war-torn future where presumably it wasn't just technological know-how that got lost time and again. It's actually a mite surprising that anybody even remembers who Penthesilea was.

Of course, the other side of the coin is that one would expect new myths aplenty to have sprung up by the 31st century, yet for some reason we rarely see sly design name references to those... ;)

[Moonsword]

The One Star Faith is not in the habit of building war material, nor is the cult of Saint Cameron.  We have seen one pseudo-religion get that sort of power and do that sort of thing.  They've opted not to go that route beyond the Toyama.

Beyond that, the stories of old Earth have not lost their currency, cultural status, or knowledge the way you're implying.  The choice of names itself speaks to that as does the fact that many terrestrial religions are alive and well, if somewhat altered.

[Kit deSummersville]

Well, the number of myths has died off in the past five hundred years and probably will continue to do so. Now you see the Rommel, Zhukov and Korvin instead of the Hercules and Atlas.

[Moonsword]

The Hercules is actually newer than everything else on that list, Kit.

[Kit deSummersville]

The Hercules is actually newer than everything else on that list, Kit.

I meant the legend, a couple of centuries old.